Biography

On investing George Jonas, 78, as Member of the Order of Canada in February, 2014, the Governor General praised his "clever, unafraid, and compelling" journalism, adding that Jonas was also "a successful scriptwriter, poet, librettist, and novelist." South of the border, John O'Sullivan of National Review Online noted the appointment, writing: "Today [Jonas] is Canada's preeminent conservative public intellectual, and as Mark Steyn pointed out a few years ago in this space, that description remains true when you remove the word 'conservative' from it."

Education and career

George Jonas was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1935, the son of Dr. Georg M. Hübsch (1883-1972), a lawyer, composer, and former member of the Viennese State Opera, and Magda Hübsch (1905-1997) whose first husband, Julius Jonas, went missing at the Russian Front in 1942. After attending the Lutheran Gymnasium between 1945 and 1954, Jonas worked briefly as a program editor for Radio Budapest. Following the Hungarian uprising of 1956, he emigrated to Canada, where he did freelance work as a print and broadcast journalist until the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation offered him a staff position in 1962. Working as an editor and producer on staff and contract for the next 34 years, Jonas produced his last show for CBC-TV in 1996. Following his departure from the CBC, he was a freelance writer/producer based in Toronto. In 2005 he was appointed Senior Policy Advisor to the Aurea Foundation, for which he co-created the semi-annual public affairs series, the Munk Debates, featuring such participants as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former U.S. Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, among many others.

Personal life

Jonas married the late Sylvia Jonas (née Nemes) in New York in 1960. Their son, Alexander, was born in 1964 in Toronto, where they lived until they separated in 1968. Jonas married his second wife, Barbara Amiel, in 1974 and he lived in Toronto with her until they divorced in 1979. Jonas and his third wife, Maya Jonas (née Cho), lived together, also in Toronto, from 1986 until his death in 2016.

Works for print, screen, broadcast and stage

Jonas wrote three works for live stage (The European Lover, a one-act opera, with music by Tibor Polgar, directed by Leon Major, first performed in 1965; The Glove, a one-act opera, with music by Tibor Polgar, directed by Alan Lunn, first performed in 1973; and Pushkin, a full-length stage play, directed by Marion Andre, first performed in 1979). Jonas also wrote and/or produced and/or directed over 200 dramas and documentary dramas for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, including the award-winning radio and TV series, The Scales of Justice (1981-1996).

Journalism

Jonas contributed features, reviews, columns, poetry as well as aviation and motorsport journalism to many Canadian periodicals and newspapers; also to such U.S. and British publications and wire services as the Daily Telegraph,Saturday Review,National Review,The Wall Street Journal,The National Interest,The Chicago Sun-Times,the Middle East Quarterly,Foreign Policy,the Hungarian Review, and United Press International. He was a contributing editor and columnist for The Canadian Lawyer, a contributing editor of Toronto Life, and a weekly columnist for the Toronto Sun (1981-2001).

"Gemini" Award (twice) for Best TV Movie for Regina vs. Nelles,The Scales of Justice, and for Best Short Dramatic Program for Regina vs. Stewart,The Scales of Justice, Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. (Toronto, 1993.)

The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal "in recognition of his contributions to Canada" in 2012, and

Appointed Member of the Order of Canada for "thought-provoking" and "compelling" journalism in 2013.